San Diego Zoo joins international project to help survival of the platypus NBC 7 San Diego [Video]

The San Diego Zoo is joining an international collaboration project to ensure the survival of one of nature’s truly unique animals — the platypus.

Scientists with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance are working with the Taronga Conservation Society Australia, the organization behind the Taronga Western Plains Zoo Dubbo and Taronga Zoo Sydney, and the University of New South Wales to conserve the platypus.

The platypus has a beaver-like tail, waterproof fur, a flat bill and webbed feet like a duck. They are mammals, but lay eggs, and have lived for thousands of years in eastern Australia and Tasmania. Still, not much is known about these creatures, the San Diego Zoo and Wildlife Alliance says.

The platypus species is on track to continue declining, according to zoo. The mammal’s status is “near threatened,” according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

The geographic range …